Michel Barnier threw his last strength into the battle on Tuesday evening during an intervention on the television news of France 2 and TF1. While his government is on the verge of collapse, the Prime Minister called for the “responsibility” of deputies. Avoid censorship when the National Rally, in addition to presenting its own text, should vote on the left’s motion? “I think it’s possible,” assured Barnier.
“We are not in bargaining”, but Marine Le Pen has entered “into a sort of bidding war”, asserted the Savoyard, questioned about a possible final gesture on pensions. “It is not me who is to blame”, but the event would have consequences: “18 million” French people “will see their income tax increase”, warned Barnier, if his government were to be overthrown and the budget not adopted.
He ruled out the possibility of being reappointed by questioning the “meaning” of such a scenario and the hypothesis of a resignation by Emmanuel Macron. “Political fiction,” the president himself had dismissed a little earlier, from Riyadh, where he is on a state visit. Macron denounced an “unbearable cynicism” of the RN if he voted for a motion tabled by the left “which insults its voters”.
As for the PS, it showed a “complete loss of bearings” by censoring the government, Macron accused. The head of state, however, called for “not to scare” by evoking the risks of a financial crisis. Overthrowing the government would be “a dissolution of minds”, “but I don’t believe in it”, insisted the French president. “Everyone will take responsibility,” he added, refusing to publicly consider the options for replacing Michel Barnier at Matignon.
In the Assembly, the conference of presidents set Wednesday, 4 p.m., for the examination of the motions of censure tabled by the left and the RN. And for the head of the LFI deputies, Mathilde Panot, “the fall of Barnier is confirmed”. The Prime Minister is “a lot of pain to see”, she judged after his appearance on television. “He’s struggling. Like a fish out of water. Even if it means sinking into mediocrity and untruths.”
Marine Le Pen estimated, for her part, that she “could only fail” after having included her budget “in the catastrophic continuity of Emmanuel Macron”.
